Uncontrolled bleeding is the major cause of death in civilian and battlefield traumas, Sauaia, et al., The Journal of Trauma, 38:185-193 (1995); Geeraedts, et al., Injury, 40:11-20 (2009), highlighting the critical need for better technologies for wound management. Current hemostasis technologies, including topical sealants, exothermic zeolites, advanced dressings and recombinant clotting factors, Clemetson, K. J., Thrombosis Research, 129:220-224 (2012); Fries, et al., British Journal of Anaesthesia, 105:116-121 (2010), have demonstrated modest successes, yet all have significant drawbacks and none are as ‘evolved’ as the natural hemostasis system. More recent efforts have focused on the creation of synthetic analogues of clotting constituents, most notably platelets. The vital platelet functions, McGwin, et al., The Journal of Trauma, 66:526-530 (2009); Granville-Chapman, et al., Injury, 42:447-459 (2011), that one would like to recapitulate include binding, stabilization and enhancement of fibrin clot formation in dynamic flow conditions; clot contraction; and cytokine and growth-factor release to stimulate wound healing. So far, all artificial platelet approaches, ranging from purely synthetic to reconstituted freeze dried harvested native platelets, fail to fully recapitulate these key functions. Most approaches claiming success achieve only the binding and augmentation of clot formation through multivalent display of platelet-binding motifs or platelet-cell surface adhesion motifs on a micro/nano-sized vehicle, Evans, et al., World Journal of Surgery, 34:158-163 (2010).
Such approaches are sufficient to recruit clotting components and thereby decrease clotting time; however, these studies rely on vehicles that lack the natural platelet's ability to deform within and in response to the fibrin mesh.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide compositions and methods display platelet-like behaviors.
It is another object of the invention to provide compositions and methods for increasing hemostatsis.
It is another object of the invention to provide compositions and methods for promoting clot contraction.